Technical Expert/s - Advising Frontier Tech Hub on the technical requirements for access to health services and interoperable data for decision-making in humanitarian contexts in Ethiopia

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Terms of Reference

Position: Expert in Health in humanitarian and development contexts in Ethiopia supporting last mile health service delivery and enhanced health data systems for effective decision-making in health.

Scope: Market and landscape analysis

Focus: Frontier Technologies in Humanitarian Contexts / Low-Resource Settings

Location of study: Ethiopia

Application Deadline: 8am, 13 January 2025

Duration: Phase 1 (1-2 months), additional opportunities after phase 1 may follow for a period of up to 5 months

Budget: Max £8000-15,000

About the Frontier Tech Hub

The Frontier Tech Hub works with the UK Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) at the intersection of tech, innovation, and international development. 

We work across three main areas:

·      We work with FCDO colleagues and key stakeholders to fund, test and scale frontier technologies worldwide. Since 2016, we’ve worked with 70+ FCDO staff on 58 pilots across 32 countries.

·      We connect FCDO colleagues with one another and the world of tech, helping them to explore the future, being critically curious about what radical technological transformation means for the future, and consequently, FCDO.

·      We gather and share learnings from across our portfolio of pilot projects, sharing thought leadership from the frontier of tech for impact within the FCDO’s work.

The Hub is managed by three partners: Results for Development (R4D), DT Global (fka IMC Worldwide), and Brink. It’s funded by UK Aid from the UK Government

About the FT Hub Demand-Led Workstream

The FT Hub Demand-Led Workstream is currently piloting a demand-led approach for collaborating with country ecosystems to identify and explore truly local and demand-driven challenges in low/middle-income contexts which can be addressed through the application of frontier technology solutions. We define ‘demand’ as the request / articulation of interest for a particular product or service (the innovation) by potential adopters of the innovation (which could include governments, civil society and/or target users in the general population).

FT Hub, with key ecosystem actors, has scoped key challenge areas in the health sector in the development and humanitarian context. The next phase will include deeper market and landscape research and analysis, and demand articulation to further narrow down refining the priority problem statements, their root causes and identify opportunities for intervention.

Background

In Ethiopia, the FT Hub has been engaging with the FCDO and  key stakeholders within the humanitarian and development sectors to identify challenges in health in the country, particularly in the humanitarian sector. Two key challenges have emerged as being top priorities for stakeholders:

1. Limited access to healthcare (e.g. health facilities, health workers, and commodities) in vulnerable regions​ during humanitarian emergencies.

2.      Fragmented health data systems lacking interoperability to support enhanced decision-making.

In the context of wide disparities experienced in the health sector between rural, urban, pastoralist, and displaced populations from a range of humanitarian challenges (related to conflict and climate) in Ethiopia, the FT Hub is responding to demand signals from key stakeholders to explore frontier solutions that address last-mile health services and support an enhanced interoperable data systems for more effective decision-making. Some of the key barriers that have been identified as potential avenues for further exploration are:

-          The limited access to basic health services like antenatal care and other MNCH services in humanitarian contexts which might result in low ANC utilization and insufficient immunization coverage leading to increased maternal, infant, and child mortality;

-          There might also be gaps in health worker skill particularly in humanitarian contexts where skilled health workers might not be available or may have limited capacity to provide quality care in extremely dynamic contexts;

-          Silos in data amongst various actors within the health sector (such as government and the various implementing partners) as well as between related sectors (such as nutrition, WASH, education and child protection) leading to incomplete and inaccurate data (e.g. immunization data, microplans, data on existing vulnerabilities) for effective decision-making for humanitarian response.

Therefore the FT Hub Demand-Led Workstream is seeking a consultant to undertake a market and landscape analysis of challenges related to last-mile health service delivery and interoperable health data systems within humanitarian contexts in Ethiopia.

Scope of Work

We anticipate that there may be various scopes of work available throughout the FT Demand-Led innovation process exploring technologies for addressing last mile health service delivery and/or interoperable data systems.

We would therefore, ideally invite applications from health technical consultants who can potentially commit to a longer-term engagement with FT Hub Health innovation exploration in Ethiopia.

This ToR outlines the first phase of work only, representing the first phase of our innovation process.

Phase 1 – Scope of work

The selected consultant will engage in an iterative process deconstructing the selected demand-led challenges listed in the background section into specific problem statements, conducting root cause analyses and market and landscape research that leads to the identification of potential specific points of intervention and use cases for the application of tech solutions for increasing access to last-mile health services and supporting effective health data systems for decision-making.

Starting with tools that have been developed as a guide to support this scope of work, the selected consultant will expand explorations, bringing their rigorous research and   implementation experience working on health challenges in humanitarian contexts.

Indicative activities are as follows:

1.      Conduct a landscape and market analysis of health in Ethiopia particularly in humanitarian contexts, with a focus on challenges of limited access to healthcare (facilities, workers or commodities), and incomplete and fragmented health data that adversely affects effective decision-making.

The goal of this activity is to use demand-led signals in the ecosystem to decide on specific potential problem statements and understand their root causes and identify potential use cases. This may include answering questions such as:

·      What are the local contextual challenges with:

-          access to health services in humanitarian contexts?

-          fragmentation and poor interoperability of health data systems for decision-making in humanitarian contexts?

·      What are the root causes underpinning this challenge? Which of these would be the highest priority to address?

·      Who is responsible for addressing these challenges typically and what roles do the various key stakeholders play? Who is accountable for what?

·      Who is most affected, what regions are of particular concern for these challenges? Where (geographically) are there opportunities for impact? What are the priorities of government, development sectors and humanitarian sector and where are there intersections?

·      What are the current approaches to addressing these challenges? Please note we recognise that humanitarian contexts vary significantly depending on the type of crisis, location and length of crisis etc and we only require a very high-level mapping and articulation.

·      Market Analysis: What promising practices/approaches exist to address these challenges in the context. Please indicate the scope of use (e.g. pilot, widespread roll out, standard practice), access, affordability and current impact and gaps. 

·      Ecosystem mapping – Identify the wider ecosystem actors currently engaged in tackling the problem, and articulate the relative needs, priorities and interests of different ecosystem actors.  

2. As a result of the landscape and market analysis, make a recommendation of 3-4 specific problem statements and their root causes.

·      Demand Verification- Articulate and analyse ‘demand’ for these problem statements using the demand-led Excel template which will be provided to you.  Please ensure demand articulation is evidence-led, and sources are referenced.

3. Suggest 2-3 particular use case in the humanitarian context for addressing challenges of accessing health services and/or fragmented health data for decision-making through frontier technologies. Please consider gender equity and social inclusion as you make your recommendations. For each use cases, you will need to focus on the specific situation in which a product or service could potentially be used:

·       How might the suggested use case in the humanitarian sector have applications in the broader development sector?  

·       What specific aspect of the stated health challenges and problem statement will be addressed?

·       Which location and context would you propose for each use case? Rural or urban? Where in Ethiopia and why?

·       Which stakeholders might be directly involved in the use case. (e.g. IDPs, community health workers, health volunteers, community members, women, regional health bureaus, development partners)?

At a high-level it would be useful to consider how the use cases proposed fit within the current approaches to health in the humanitarian sector. 

4.      Design and deliver a workshop for our key health stakeholders in Ethiopia with the objective of  validating, reframing and enhancing specific problem statements surfaced in the analysis and identifying target outcomes. This workshop can be online if the consultant is not based in Ethiopia.

A Phase 2 scope of work will be decided upon immediately after phase 1 and will focus on research landscaping promising frontier technologies in health related to the identified use cases, from across the globe and assessing their compatibility with the Ethiopian context in terms of the opportunities and risks.

Deliverables and timelines

1. Evidence-led market and landscape report and analysis (as per scope of work above) - January 31st

2. Demand-led analysis/articulation template filled in (excel template is provided), or alternative documentation to Excel - January 31st

3. Design of the workshop shared with FT Hub - January 31st  

4. 2–3-hour presentation of key findings of market/landscape and tech research to key stakeholders - February 7th

5. Delivery of workshop with key stakeholders in Ethiopia - February 7th

Type of Consultant, Skills & Experience

The consultant or partner may be an individual consultant who brings in additional expertise at relevant times throughout the process and/or a team of consultants. 

FT Hub is keen to recruit local consultant(s) to support on this Phase 1 scope of work and to continue with subsequent opportunities to work with FT Hub on this health innovation opportunity in possible subsequent phases. This could potentially be a longer-term piece of work with FT Hub. FT Hub will prioritise local or regional consultants who have extensive experience in the health Sector in Ethiopia or East Africa, but international consultants are welcomed.

Essential:

·       10+ years’ experience in the health in the emergency/humanitarian sector

·       3-7+ years’ working in tech and innovation for health in the international development or humanitarian contexts either for INGOs, private sector consultancies, innovation agencies and/or government

·       Significant demonstratable experience of producing market analysis and formative research reports for key sectors in international development

·       Strong ability to analyse information and data, distil complex concepts into clear messaging and synthesis information in a logical and coherent way

·       Strong written and verbal communication skills, including demonstrated ability to develop and deliver compelling presentations

·       Demonstratable experience of delivering workshops to stakeholders. Excellent facilitation skills and an ability to identify consensus with a diverse range of stakeholders.

Desirable

·       Knowledge of working in early-stage innovation with start-ups, innovators, accelerators, incubators or other forms of start-up architecture, or early-stage innovation, and emerging technologies. 

·       An understanding of innovation processes, tools and resources

Budget:

The range of the budget available is £8,000 to £15,000 (inclusive of tax).

Application Process

Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis with the application deadline being January 13, 2025 by 8:00 GMT. Interested applicants should be available to start work immediately. Applicants should submit:

·       CV(s) of consultants demonstrating relevant experience.

·       A 1 page cover letter explaining the experience of the consultant(s) relevant to this scope of work.

·       A high-level technical and financial proposal outlining the approach to the work, timeline, and budget and day rates of consultant(s) and number of days to deliver the scope of work.

Applications should be sent to Frontiertechhub@dt-global.com (with “Demand-Led Health Tech & Innovation Expert Ethiopia” in the subject line)

Evaluation Criteria:

Technical expertise: Demonstrated strength of applicant/s technical expertise and experience outlined in the CV and covering letter (80)

Strength of commercial proposal: (20)

Enquiries:

Please contact frontiertechhub@dt-global.com for further enquiries regarding this Terms of Reference or for further information on the Frontier Tech Programme. Title your enquiry ‘Advising Frontier Tech Hub on the Technical requirements for Health in humanitarian contexts in Ethiopia’.

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